Aoun’s candidacy was backed by the US, France, and Saudi Arabia. He secured a win despite Hezbollah’s attempts to maintain power. Pierre Houssney with Horizons International says Aoun is already a well known and loved leader in Lebanon. 

“He is the man who seems financially to have more integrity than any other leader that we’ve had in present history.” 

For more than two years, Lebanon has operated without a head of state. The previous president, who shares Aoun’s last name but is of no relation, was instated by Hezbollah and widely viewed as a puppet leader. Aoun’s victory was a landslide: he won by 99 votes in the 128-seat parliament. 

Houssney says the Lebanese government is ethnically structured to ensure equal representation by Christians and Muslims. The prime minister is always a Sunni Muslim, the speaker of the parliament is always a Shiite, and the president is always a Maronite Christian. 

“So when we don’t have a president in office, that means we don’t have a Christian who is leading our government,” Houssney says. 

Since the country’s civil war in the 1970s, various ethnic fiefdoms have sought power in Lebanon. 

“The good thing about the new president is that he does not belong to any of those political parties,” Houssney says.

What’s more, Aoun intends to reclaim Hezbollah’s remaining military power, most of which has dried up with the fall of the Assad regime and its arms supply from Iran. 

“He wants to enact a state in the country where the Lebanese army monopolizes the bearing of military grade arms,” Houssney says. 

Across ethnic and religious lines, Houssney says there is great rejoicing and a sense that oppression has been lifted.

“There is an unprecedented amount of hope,” he says. “It’s been beyond our dreams, honestly, and right now we’re hesitantly waiting to see whether the new order in Syria is going to be positive, and whether we’re going to see real, sustainable change happen in Lebanon.” 

Spiritually, Houssney says the present situation comes with wide open doors. 

“As the smoke has cleared after this big war of the fall, we’ve actually found our church partners are more connected into the communities of non-believers,” he says. 

Houssney acknowledges that each of the past few years have come with renewed drama and crises for Lebanon. While Aoun’s election may represent a new direction, Houssney’s hope and focus remain elsewhere. 

“Whether it’s a good thing that happens in our country or more bad things, our prayer as a ministry is that the spiritual open door would remain open so that people would come to Christ.”

Featured image courtesy of Mohamad Mekawi via Pexels

But then, in a tit-for-tat move, both Lebanon and Saudi Arabia delayed accreditation for the other’s diplomat. This was despite the fact that both diplomats were named months prior.

Finally, Riyadh approved Lebanese Ambassador Fawzi Kabbara for his diplomatic position. Kabbara is a member of Hariri’s political party. On Wednesday, Ambassador Walid al-Yaacoubi from Saudi Arabia presented his credentials to Lebanon’s President Michel Aoun. This seemingly signals an end to the dispute between the two nations for now.

Issam Naser with AFA (Arab For All) says, “Right now, the situation is fine…. The President of Lebanon, he was very wise on how to deal with this problem and now the Prime Minister has also come back to Lebanon and they are trying to deal with this problem.”

(Photo courtesy of New Vision, a project ministry of AFA)

Although things were tense for a while, with the world worried that violence could erupt between Lebanon and Saudi Arabia, Naser says Christians in Lebanon were taking action — on their knees. “This problem I think [prompted] believers more and more in their ability to pray for the country.”

Christians in Lebanon are working to be agents of God’s peace and truth, especially in a country as religiously and culturally diverse as theirs. AFA ministers to refugees in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley providing food, clothing, shelters, and spiritual encouragement. They currently have three Bible studies meeting in Bekaa and Naser reports they are going very well.

AFA is also improving the lives of refugee children. “We started a new school this year; 150 kids in this small school from refugee backgrounds. We are really going to teach them good principles about the Bible, but also they will learn how to read, how to write, and different subjects. So you can pray also for our school this year among the Syrian kids.

(Photo courtesy of New Vision, a project ministry of AFA)

Naser also asks, “You can pray for our ministry in Bekaa Valley…. Our funds are going a little bit down because of the whole situation over the last year. So you can pray also for our financial situation.”

If you’d like to support AFA, you can give to their project ministry New Vision here!

(Header photo courtesy of New Vision, a project ministry of AFA)

Confusion in the Middle East

(Image courtesy Google Maps)

However, when Hariri announced his resignation on TV from Saudi Arabia, it ushered in accusations that Sunni aligned Saudi Arabia had pressured Hariri to resign and was holding him against his will. The Shia Islamist political party, Hezbollah, even went as far to claim Saudi Arabia was declaring war with Lebanon because of Hariri’s debated detention.

Considering the Sunni-Shia Muslim rivalry and power struggle in the Middle East, Hariri’s resignation and then pause to do so could tip a very delicate scale in the Middle East’s politics, begging the question: what is going on?

Rex Rogers with SAT-7, a Christian satellite television ministry to the Middle East and North Africa, shares, “It’s hard to know from our perspective (SAT7, of course, doesn’t get involved in political things) but having just visited Beirut here in the last month when a lot of this was going on—we found that folks were in a sense almost used to this. The rest of the world interprets things one way or the other, but, they see these things come and go.”

Tolerance in Lebanon

But, despite the political storm that was stirring in the country, Rogers shares that the people of Lebanon seem to have a real perspective of diversity. In other words, despite having different beliefs, the Lebanese find a way to get along.

Flag of Lebanon
(Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

“Even groups like Hezbollah are not viewed as negatively in Lebanon by most people as some outside view that group, because they provide certain stability and they are Lebanese,” Rogers explains.

However, a breakdown in stability in Lebanon could threaten minorities in the country, like Christians and refugees. Right now, the country is doing a lot to help provide for refugees, both Syrian and Iraqi, who’ve sought refuge within its borders.

“There [are] a lot of families there that wouldn’t have anywhere else to go if Lebanon hadn’t opened its doors,” Rogers shares.

Pray

Regardless of tensions in the country, SAT-7 offers hope through the Gospel to the people in Lebanon. Through its satellite TV ministry, SAT-7 helps meet needs of kids growing up illiterate through its new channel, SAT-7 Academy.

“They grow up so fast and you need to provide them with an ability to function in a free society, and the ability to be employed, and avoid extremism if they have opportunities to care for themselves,” Rogers explains.

And while the recent clamor in Lebanon mightn’t worry the Lebanese as much as the outside world, will you pray? Pray for peace in Lebanon and protection and encouragement for the people.

More now than ever, people in the Middle East and North Africa are looking for spiritual answers. Please pray these people would encounter Christ, the Gospel, and have their lives transformed through it.

To financially support SAT-7’s work in Lebanon, click here!

Learn more about SAT-7 in Lebanon here!